Hollywood Crows (Hollywood Station)

This is a followup to Wambaugh's "Hollywood Station" and follows essentially the same formula (and some of the same characters) highlighting the bizarre, touching and horrifying experiences of a group of LA police trying to keep law and order in Hollywood. Clearly based on true accounts, these anecdotes are fascinating in themselves, but there is also a well worked out plot holding the book together.It doesn't end neatly - but that fits the overall mood.Easily as good as the earlier volume: Looking forward to  Hollywood Moon  due out later in 2009

I read started to read this one minutes after finsihing the first in the series of Hollywood Station books by Wambaugh. I love shows like The Shield and Wire and so the cop stories and life appeals greatly to me. Wambaugh's books are full of superb characters and anecdotes all wrapped around delicious stories. He gives you a real sense of life on the Hollywood beat and all those charcters that make up the craziest place in America.Becarfeul, once you read one of these books you can't stop!

Ok the plot isn't the most complicated - 2 exes going through a divorce where they both want the money and custody - but that's not really the point of this book. The point is the portrayal of ordinary cops going about their boring, mundane and sometimes dangerous business. I suspect it is deadly accurate but it is also laugh out loud funny in parts and terribly sad in others. Well worth a read.

Whilst not an instant classic, this latest novel is mesmerising reading. Beautifully described characters operating in the high octane environment of L.A. utterly grip the reader. The characterisation is wonderful, the humour subtle and there is no doubt that the reality of modern policing, US-style, is overlaid and interwoven in this tale. It leaves the reader wanting more. Recommended to fans of Michael Connelly and Jack Kerley in particular.

I stopped reading Wambaugh years ago, he just disappeared off my radar. What a mistake! I picked up a copy of Hollywood Station and enjoyed it immensely, became hooked all over again. One of my top two authors. This joins "Hollywood Station", "Hollywood Moon", "Hollywood Hills" and "Harbor Nocturne" on the Favourites shelf.

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Great. Part of a three book series. Thoroughly enjoyed all three.

Great look at the lot of normal people trying to defend peace and justice amongst people who are almost aliens. Will never look at street cartoon characters the same.

This is Joseph Wambaugh at the top of his game. If you are a fan of his you need this book. If you are not a fan of his, read this and become one.

The first sequel in the Hollywood series of books is both easy and entertaining. Of course, like all of these epics, it opens with the two surfer cops, and then broadens to include a variety of characters that are all interesting. You can see where the plot is heading long before it reaches its destination, but this isn't a criticism as much as an observation. Furthermore, this book isn't "a bummer" as the "Entertainment Weekly critic described it in his brief review. "Hollywood Crows" concerns members of the Los Angeles Police Department that serve as 'Community Relations Officers who deal with quality of life predicaments, I.e., blocking somebody's driveway. Limbaugh introduces us to a number of characters who concern themselves with quality of rights issues as well as regular cops who patrol the streets and nab criminals. Some of the plots conclude with tragic consequences, but all the villains get what they deserve. The chief plot is about the owner of a strip club who is in the middle of a divorce and his 'hottie' wife who takes advantage of the ranks. Naturally, Wambaugh's is easy to read.

If you didn't know it was Joseph Wambaugh, you'd swear that Carl Hiaasen took a vacation in LA, hung out with the LAPD, and wrote this cynically funny tale of cops and those they protect, and especially those who they are protected from. But Hiaasen could never tell a police story with Wambaugh's authority, and only an ex-cop could render it with Wambaugh's sincere passion for the men and women in blue.Like it's predecessor, "Hollywood Station", "Crows" (short for LAPD's "Community Relations Office") is told through a series of Hill Street Blues-style vignettes loosely wrapped around a central plot. In this outing, The Leopard Lounge, a Sunset Boulevard strip joint, it's oily owner, Ali Aziz, and his impossibly gorgeous soon-to-be ex-wife Margot combine to form the story's deliciously sleazy and very Hiaasen-like core of deceit, blackmail, sex and murder. Ali's problem is that Margot has custody of his beloved five-year old son and half the family fortune, and he'd prefer to see Margot as not only an ex-wife, but also an ex-person. Not that Ali has any corner on the duplicity market: the scheming Margot plumbs new depths of greed and corruption in pursuit of her wanton desires. It is Wambaugh's knack for character development and an easy, natural dialog that takes "Crows" above the pack and again secures the author's well deserved accolades for capturing life-inside-the-precinct. Back from "Hollywood Station" are Flotsam and Jetsam, the surfing sleuths whose SoCal beach banter nearly requires a translator, and will find you chuckling out loud. "Hollywood" Nate Weiss is still flashing his SAG card and looking for the big break, and hottie cops Ronnie Sinclair and Cat Song are as beautiful - and untouchable - as ever - and a new, predictably insufferable and clueless precinct house sergeant to replace the legendary "Oracle" of "Hollywood Station."But this is not all fun and games - Wambaugh's distaste for the bureaucracy of the post-Rodney King federal consent decree is palpable and justified, as the restrictions placed on the department create mountains of work but little additional protection for LA's citizenry. And while Wambaugh's dark and cynical humor dominates, the story takes an unexpected but well executed turn to poignancy by the end, proving that in LA there are few winners and even less redemption.In summary, well-paced and brilliantly crafted - a novel that captures LA life on the streets, at the same time highly entertaining and deeply sobering. A highly recommended read.

Joseph Wambaugh, who is pushing 75 now, has been acclaimed as a writer of both novels and nonfiction about police and crime in Los Angeles for nearly 40 years. While still at work as a detective sergeant in 1971, his first novel, The New Centurions, was published. It was nearly that long ago (1973) when I first read The Onion Field, his true-crime story of the kidnapping of two L.A. police officers and its profoundly sad consequences. Though most of Wambaugh's work has been fiction, it was only a few years ago that he returned to writing novels about the LAPD. First came Hollywood Station in 2007, followed in 2008 and 2009 by two closely related novels, Hollywood Crows and Hollywood Moon. Perhaps more are on the way in this outstanding series of books.Wambaugh is superbly talented. His ear for dialogue, his psychological insight, his knowledge about both criminals and police, his gift of language -- all become unmistakably clear in these three engrossing novels. He has mastered the craft of writing fiction, but these books transcend craft with credible, full-bodied characters and graceful style.What is most compelling in this saga of the men and women of Hollywood Station are the recurring characters. Read these books, and you'll come to know and appreciate the two surfer cops, known only as Flotsam and Jetsam. For example, Jetsam says to his partner about a bowling alley that has come up in one of many conversations about how the two surfers can meet women, "I mean, there's gotta be opportunities on those lanes for coppers as coolaphonic and hormonally imaginative as the almost four hundred pounds of male heat riding in this car." And that's one of the more easily understood passages in Flotsam and Jetsam's never-ending dialogue. Then there's Hollywood Nate Weiss, an aspiring actor with a love for mirrors and hopes for a SAG card; The Oracle, a 46-year veteran sergeant with the insight of a sensitive psychiatrist; a Ukranian-immigrant detective whose inventive use of the English language would do Mrs. Malaprop proud; and several strong, smart women officers, all struggling to keep their pride and their patience in a blatantly sexist environment.And those are just the cops! The miscreants include street people like Trombone Teddy, formerly a well-known jazz sideman; crystal meth "tweakers" and other addicts, many of them eking out a meager existence by wearing Batman, Superman, Hulk, or Spiderman costumes and cadging tips from camera-wielding tourists near Graumann's Chinese Theater; and the ex-cons and other ambitious operators whose imaginative schemes are the stuff of the clever plots in these three novels. In fact, you'll probably learn more than enough about the identity-theft scams and other cons Wambaugh describes to scare the living daylights out of you.(From Mal Warwick's Blog on Books)

The characters from HOLLYWOOD STATION are back in HOLLYWOOD CROWS. "Crows" is an acronym for Community Relations office. Wambaugh has a thing for the bureaucratic impediments implemented since the Rodney King incident, and the Crows are symptomatic.Wambaugh spends time reintroducing the various cops and crooks from HOLLYWOOD STATION, so much time that the novel loses needed focus. There's Hollywood Nate, who wants to be an actor; there are the surfer dudes Flotsam and Jetsam, and there are several female officers such as Cat Song, a Korean American hottie, and Ronnie Sinclair, who works for the Hollywood Crows. A unique element is Wambaugh's journalistic tone. He refuses to judge the various criminal elements, including Leonard Stilwell a crack addict who also appeared in HOLLYWOOD STATION. I don't know why, but I actually like Leonard. He's such a sad sack loser on his way to nowhere, that I found myself pulling for him, even when he embezzled money.The main plot line follows an acrimonious divorce case involving a strip club owner Ali Aziz and his beautiful young wife Margot. Ali hires Leonard to break into his house, ostensibly to steal some papers he needs. Meanwhile, Margot lures some of the cops into the fray, namely Hollywood Nate, who is always on the lookout for some stray female companionship, and Bix Ramstad, one of the Crows.Margot is the one character Wambaugh belittles. She will get at least seven million from the divorce, but she wants everything Aziz has, rationalizing that her son Nicky should be able to live in the style to which he has become accustomed.We also get a good look at the Hollywood scene, mainly the Grauman's Chinese Theater area where various addicts and street characters prey on the tourists. These characters seemed a bit exaggerated, but I've never been in Hollywood, so who knows?This is a hard book to read in that there is no real lead character, and the Aziz plot line doesn't pick up speed until near the end. I found myself paging back over the last few pages every time I picked up the book, and sometimes even that didn't help.

Some reviewers have complained that this book is not literary. But there are many ways to convey insights, and Wambaugh is an expert in his style, which he essentially originated when he was still a cop himself. Beneath the humor lies sorrow; beneath the crime lies hurt; when you look, there is something beneath everything, and Wambaugh's technique allows you to enjoy the anecdotes while absorbing the meaning. One of his particular plot devices, which I have always enjoyed, is that he gradually introduces a large and varied cast, through a series of anecdotal adventures which appear to have nothing to do with anything, but in fact are crucial to moving the storyline.The main plot regards the upcoming divorce between a nightclub owner and his wife. But all through the anecdotes, you see reflections of other troubled marriages: the Somali couple in an arranged marriage, the divorced men and women of the police force, the people who are still looking for love and those who have given up on it, and those who think they know what they want but waver when faced with choices one way or the other.There are many things to think about while you read, but the book is so smooth and enjoyable that you may not think about them until later, when some resolutions (or lack of them, just as in real life) come back to trouble you. I read the book a few weeks ago, and took time to savor the ironies of plot and the fates of the characters before writing this review.Don't get fooled into thinking this is just another Wambaugh cop story. He is a real professional, and he packs a lot into his tale. I look forward to many more works from this terrific author, and I highly recommend "Hollywood Crows" to readers. You don't even need to have read the earlier book, "Hollywood Station"...this is a stand-alone novel, and truly does stand on its own merits.

If you're looking for a good thriller with some insane hilarity, you can't go wrong when you read any fiction by Joseph Wambaugh. You may go through every emotion when reading his fictional (based on real cases) police procedurals. I've read every one, and would be happy to read them all again In reading a series written around a certain precinct, you begin to get to know the personalities of the various characters and how they evolve over time.. It's very easy to get hooked on the characters and the various actions they become involved in and how they all react and interact. Like friends and family, you never want it to end. Don't retire Joseph Wambaugh, please, keep us all happy!

I have read all three Hollywood stories in the trilogy and I liked this the best as it seemed to have the truest telling of a police procedural. This is a snapshot in time of the operation of the Hollywood Division of the LAPD and the "Crows" in this story are part of the Community Resorce Office.(CRO)The focus of the story is Margot Aziz, a drop dead Holllywood cookie from the wealthy part of town who is going through a gut wrenching divorce from her Arab husband who runs a couple of strip clubs. The focus of their battle is their son, Nicky. Their anger with each other leads to dueling plans for murder. How that plays out and what parts of the Hollywood Division with it's myriad characters are drawn into it along with the other peripheral miscreants that populate the area makes for very entertaining and sometimes poignant reading.

A good read. Characters could have been developed better for future books. A. Little predictable but okIt is a tough read when a character you like kills himself

One of a series of stories about the Hollywood Division of the LAPD. Several of the characters are familiar from other "Hollywood" books. The stories are likely based on actual incidents, which in some cases makes them interesting, and others, depressing. There is less development of characters in this book--especially new police to the series. But it is still a good read, especially if you already know some of the policeman and policewomen who populate Wambaugh's books.

Book was in the condition as advertised. The only reason I gave four stars instead of five was because delivery was somewhat slow. It arrived a day after it was promised. Other than that there was no problem.

Having been a longstanding admirer of this author, I did not hesitate to purchase this latest penmanship that was on offer.I was not disappointed: truly magnificent prose, be it at times difficult for me to understand as I am not a native American speaker. Excellent plot, surprising twists as only once could I predict the outcome of a certain development accurately.If you want to read what I believe is a true account of what policework is really like in one of the most famous places in the world, don't hesitate a minute and purchase this masterpiece!

Hollywood Crows is worth reading, but it's Wambaugh light--a far distance from his top novels and top true crime books. The story is more anecdotal than plot-driven. There is a plot, but it's more of a thread connecting the work of an ensemble cast of Hollywood cops. We are drawn to the book by their personal stories, their jokes, anecdotes, ways and lore. There is a crime, actually a set of crimes, at the core, but the core is thin and the book survives by its atmospherics and glimpses into the way of life of a set of disparate individuals. Wambaugh is better equipped to write such a book than anyone and Hollywood Crows has its moments, but it will be disappointing to a reader of great books like The Choirboys and The Onion Field.

Although this series of books each tells a different story, the characters are very well defined and seem very real. I would suggest that you read them all in order. I really loved this series of 4 books. This is the 2nd in this series.Hollywood StationHollywood CrowsHollywood MoonHollywood Hills

Wambaugh has done it again: revealed the real character of cops and the true nature of their jobs, something no documentary or non-fiction could ever do.There is one scene in particular I must tell you about, and it has to do with a community relations meeting with Hollywood locals. No, I won't spoil it with details, but I will tell you that when I tried to read it aloud to my wife I laughed so hard I broke into a sweat and could not compose myself for ten minutes.Thanks, Joe, for a great read.